The Daily Slash: May 6th 2010

Here we are, it's late Thursday night, and you're staring at your computer screen, catching up on the latest news in the tech industry. We're glad that you've made it to us tonight, and welcome to the latest edition of the Daily Slash. Tonight, in the Best of R3 Media, we've got Google Goggles getting a nice upgrade, a nifty trick to make your iPad work overseas, and supposedly AT&T has worked something out with Apple. In the Dredge 'Net, we've got a MacBook Air knock-off, the future of Austrian phonebooths, and OLET could be better than OLED.

The Best of R3 Media

Google Goggles Can Now Do Translations: Ever been in a foreign land, and you find yourself staring at a restaurant's or business' sign out front, but for the life of you you can't figure out what's going on inside? Well, thanks to Google Goggles, you don't have to worry anymore. Just snap a photo of something you need translated, pick your region, and go from there. As easy as you should expect a Google application to be. It's available for download right now. [via Android Community]

Cleave Your Way to a Vodafone 3G iPad: So, guess what? The iPad WiFi + 3G is already unlocked, even before you get it. That's right, Apple just cut-out the middleman and went ahead with the unlock themselves. Makes it easier for an international shipping, we imagine. Anyway, if you couldn't wait for the international version of the 3G iPad, some crazy "hacker" managed to slim down the regular sized SIM card, and make it fit into the MicroSIM card slot. And it works. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe us. [via Everything iPad]

AT&T Gets the iPhone for Another Year: According to a recent report from an analyst, who is simply speculating, apparently AT&T only agreed to the iPad's ridiculous, contract-free data plans because of one thing: the iPhone. Obviously AT&T still wants the iPhone, and they want to be the exclusive carrier of the handset from Apple, for as long as possible. The analyst thinks that's why everything worked out for both companies, and sure enough, that iPhone for Verizon Wireless has certainly not been announced. [via SlashPhone]

The Dredge Net

Meet the Iridium Star: We'll just go ahead and say it: it's got a cool name. And, we might even say that it sounds better than Apple's MacBook Air, which this knock-off is so clearly trying to . . . Knock off. And yes, this is just another in a long list of Apple rip-offs, but hey, it could be a lot worse. The Iridium Star features WiFi, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor. So, it could be worse. A lot worse. And it doesn't even look that bad, surprisingly enough. Though, we do have to give the aesthetics to the MacBook Air. It's got that sexiness we just can't take our eyes off. [via Ubergizmo]

Austria's Phone Boxes Aren't All That Useless Anymore: While phone booths aren't necessarily the most popular thing in existence here in the United States, apparently they are even more disliked around the world. Take the ones you'll find in Austria, for example. No one's been using them for such a long time, that Telekom Austria believes they can go ahead and change them into electric car recharging stations. Yep, that's a good use of recycled goods, if you ask us. [via Physorg]

Organic Light Emitting Transistors Are the New OLED: Because we want them. Doesn't OLET just seem to have more of a ring to it, than OLED? It's just similar enough to be confusing the general public, and we can't wait for it to hit the mainstream. Despite the fact we can't afford an OLED TV right now, even of the smallest variety, here we are already looking at what's coming next. OLET's rely on three layers of material: the bottom one carries the charge, with the middle one releasing the photons when teased by the lower layer, and obviously the top layer is the one that lets those photons through to give you those glorious, beyond glorious images. Now, what's coming after OLET? [via Engadget]